professionalising rural water services: a response to the sustainability challenge
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Professionalising rural water services: a response to the sustainability challenge
Sustainable Services at Scale - Triple-S
Stockholm World Water Week - September 2010
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Grantee Workshop
Triple-S - sustainable services at scale 2
The power of water
Benefiting from ‘water capital’
3
Political interests - local, national and international
Fundraising - charity giving and tax payers
Development organisations – professional careers
Triple-S - sustainable services at scale
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But after the ribbon has been cut?
Slippage
Lack of sustainability
Low functionality
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Progress has been made, but many challenges remain
High levels of system failure - 30 to 40% - a universal problem
Wasted financial investments
Health, dignity, well-being and livelihoods affected
@Fairwater
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Triple-S multi-country study
Better understanding of service delivery and drivers –
To inform principles framework
Participative process – national stakeholders
Understanding the political economy of the sector
..... presentation of partial results - financing not included
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Thirteen study countries
Range of sector maturity, aid dependency, business markets and reforms
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Decentralisation
Mixed experience with decentralisation processes
Rapid and complete – with support programmes (Colombia, South Africa and Uganda) or with less structured support (Burkina Faso)
Phased process – starts with deconcentration (Benin, Mozambique) or partial (Ghana)
Some evidence of re-centralisation (Colombia)
....... and remember the timescale for decentralisation
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Sector reform for rural areas
Separation of functions with formalisation of community management (Ethiopia – legal issues remain)
New demands on local government as service authority
New roles for centralised agencies – often resistance to change (SANAA Honduras, PHED India, CWSA Ghana)
Reforms delivered through a series of projects with risk of fragmentation or gaps (Ghana) or limited commitment (Honduras)
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Study findings – sanctioned models
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Community management
Community management still predominant service delivery model
Trend away from volunteerism
Out-sourcing of specific functions - plumbing or billing functions (Honduras, Sri Lanka)
Full delegation of O&M and administration for more complex systems
Community decision-making retained (Ghana, USA)
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Beyond community management
Increase in commercial approaches - small towns and RGCs
Construction and/or maintenance contracts with area based contracting - Benin, Burkina Faso, South Africa, Uganda
Local government acts as service authority to let delegated contracts
Continued need for oversight and support from external agencies
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Delegation options – Benin
Simple technology – hand pump
More complex technology – mechanised boreholes and piped systems
Delegation of one supply to one local operator Delegation of many similar systems to one local operator Delegation to one operator of many different types of systems – geographic or territorial lease
Delegation by Commune of the operation to a private operator Delegation by Commune through concession contract - for both operation and investment costs Delegation by Commune to an operator with no risk (not depending on tariff income to make profit) Delegation by Commune to an operator, but with no direct relation with consumers (no recovery of bills)
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Post-construction support
Mainly applies to community management models
Formally mandated and part of policy - Ghana, South Africa, Uganda, Sri Lanka, Thailand
But, not adopted systematically in most cases because of financial and capacity constraints
Exceptions in Honduras – Técnico en Operación y Mantenamiento and USA through RCAP and NRWA
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Capacity support
Typically provided by deconcentrated offices of central ministries
Technical Support Units in Uganda
Other examples from Ghana, South Africa and Benin – new efforts in Burkina Faso
‘Support to the supporters’ most commonly local government - districts, communes or municipalities
Addressing gap in (newly) decentralised contexts – both for community management and more commercial arrangements
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Monitoring of sustainable services
Few examples of comprehensive monitoring systems – focus on monitoring of outputs, not services (Ethiopia and Mozambique)
Only 6 of 13 countries have any indicator for functionality – exceptions like Honduras or Uganda with ‘10 golden indicators’
Fewer countries have specific sector goals relating to sustainability (Honduras and Colombia)
No globally agreed upon definition for sustainability - some promising examples of composite indicators - Honduras and Bolivia
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Accountability and regulation
Direct accountability mechanisms between consumers and service providers are vulnerable – cycle of poor service, low tariffs
Some evidence of ‘long-arm’ of accountability involving local or central government - Communes in Burkina Faso and Water Service Authorities in South Africa, DWD in Uganda
Weak local government capacity is a major constraint
Limited experience with regulation of rural service providers – Colombia case illustrates risk of in-appropriate regulatory frameworks
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Professionalisation as a trend
Move towards professionalisation across different service delivery models – increasing with system complexity and service levels
Spectrum of change in community management – specialisation of functions, partial outsourcing and fully delegation
Trend in Latin America to strengthen existing committees and associations (Colombia - programa cultura empresarial)
In other regions, out sourcing is done with NGOs/CBOs and ‘commercial’ operators – increasing delegation options with coverage and service levels
Space for innovative business approaches?
RURAL (VILLAGE)
RURAL - HIGHLY
DISPERSED
RURAL GROWTH CENTRES
AND SMALL TOWNS
VOLUNTARY BASEDSEMI-
PROFESSIONALISEDFULLY
PROFESSIONALISED
Delegated contracts to
private operators
Community-based management
Direct local government or municipal
provider
Urban utility
(public, private or
mixed)Association of
CBM or user
associationsSelf Supply
A global taxonomy?
New business models and packages
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Building blocks for professionalisation
Institutional roles and separation of
functions
Post-construction and capacity
support
Monitoring of services as outcomes
Appropriate accountability and
regulation
Strong national
leadership and vision
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National leadership is all important
‘Political’ support for professionalisation of rural water
Long-term commitment to sector capacity building
Government vision and leadership is key – Honduras still struggling despite reforms since 2003
Need for common and widely sanctioned agreements on service levels and different service delivery models (Ghana)
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Meeting the costs of professionalisation
Think beyond capital and operation expenditures
Financing of less politically expedient costs is essential through 3 ‘T’s
All costs have to be met to shift from ‘business as usual’ and really address the sustainability challenge
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Triple-S
Supporting indefinite and sustainable rural water
services at scale_______
www.irc.nl/page/[email protected]